Patrick Maisonneuve
Born (1955-03-01) 1 March 1955
Aurillac, France
NationalityFrench
OccupationLawyer

Patrick Maisonneuve (born 1 March 1955) is a French lawyer of criminal law.[1] He began his legal practice in 1979, and is known for taking on widely reviled high-profile clients that other lawyers have shunned.[2] In 2013[3] and 2014[4] GQ ranked him the sixth most powerful lawyer of France.

He experienced a turning point in his career around 1990, when he joined the defense team in the COGEDIM affair (bogus invoices produced by an important building company) and the one of Henri Emmanuelli (in another affair of bogus invoices). Indeed, as a result, he gradually moved from cases of general criminal law to white collar criminality (without giving up the cases of murder, rape and terrorism entirely).[5]

He defended Edmond Hervé in the ministers' trial of the Infected blood scandal in 1999, after years of investigations and procedure;[6] Gilles Ménage (former chief of staff of François Mitterrand) in the trial (2005) of the Presidency's abusive wiretappings (1983–1986);[7] and Sébastien de Montessus, former director of mines of Areva, sued by his own ex-boss, Anne Lauvergeon, for alleged spying of her private life (Sébastien de Montessus has been acquitted).[8] One of his most unpopular clients was Fabrice Burgaud, made famous by the Outreau affair. He defended him in front of the Conseil supérieur de la magistrature (CSM, Higher Judicial Council),[9] and sued two national newspapers as well as Bertrand Tavernier for libel. The newspapers and the movie director have been sentenced.[10][11][12] In 2009, Maisonneuve defended the Church of Scientology on charges of profiting illegally.[13] He is defence lawyer for Yoo Som-na, the eldest daughter of Yoo Byung-eun[14] and Christine Lagarde, director of the International Monetary Fund[15]

Regardless, Maisonneuve is on the plaintiffs' side in some important cases, especially the case of the Fédération nationale de la mutualité française against Laboratoires Servier (Mediator scandal)[16] and the one of the European Parliament against Marine Le Pen.[17]

On 26 May 2014, Maisonneuve revealed during a press conference that the company Bygmalion, for which he is the lawyer, made bogus invoices as a result of the pressure exerted by the staff of Nicolas Sarkozy and by the UMP: instead of making bills for Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign, Bygmalion was requested to exaggerate or to invent works for the UMP's ordinary activities, because the electoral expenses exceeded the legal spending limit. Patrick Maisonneuve estimated the total amount of the fake invoices to "more than 10 million euros" and called the demand of the UMP for "financial blackmail".[18][19] The next day, the chairman of the UMP, Jean-François Copé announced his resignation.[20] The criminal investigation accelerated during the following months.[21] In the name of his clients, Patrick Maisonneuve also filed three complaints against Le Point, who, in three different articles, had accused Bygmalion of profiting illegally (an accusation never endorsed by the investigative magistrates in charge of the case).[22][23] After Nicolas Sarkozy was formally indicted in February 2016, Patrick Maisonneuve expressed his satisfaction and reiterated his position: The bogus invoices were all about the excessive expenses of Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign.[24]

References

  1. ↑ "Bienvenue sur Adobe GoLive 4". Dvs.asso.fr. Archived from the original on 25 January 2005. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  2. ↑ "Ferry Owner's Daughter Claims She Is Victim of Witch Hunt". The Chosun Ilbo. English.chosun.com. 30 May 2014. Archived from the original on 4 June 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  3. ↑ "Le top 30 des avocats les plus puissants de France" Archived 5 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine, GQ, November 2013, p. 133.
  4. ↑ ""GQ" dévoile son classement des avocats les plus puissants de France". Le Point. 19 September 2014. Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  5. ↑ "De la pègre à l'élite, les nouveaux défenseurs du pouvoir" (in French). Le Monde 2. 21 March 2008. Archived from the original on 31 October 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2016.; Patrick Maisonneuve (2015). Justice et politique : le couple infernal (in French). Plon. pp. 13–39 and 55–66. ISBN 978-2-259-24869-3. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  6. ↑ "Mis en examen dans l'affaire du sang contaminé – Edmond Hervé a été interrogé sur le fonctionnement du secrétariat d'Etat à la santé entre 1984 et 1986", Le Monde, 30 September 1994; France 2, July 17, 1998 Archived 18 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine; "La défense demande à la Cour de se référer uniquement au droit pénal", Le Monde, 27 February 1999.
  7. ↑ "L'avocat de Gilles Ménage "n'ira pas plus loin"", Le Monde, 24 février 2005.
  8. ↑ "France-Un ex-cadre d'Areva blanchi dans une affaire d'espionnage" (in French). Reuters.fr. 24 June 2014. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  9. ↑ "La décision du CSM dans l'affaire Burgaud – Journal d'un avocat" (in French). Maitre-eolas.fr. Archived from the original on 21 May 2015. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  10. ↑ "Télérama condamné pour injure envers le juge Burgaud – Europe1.fr – Politique" (in French). Europe1.fr. Archived from the original on 17 April 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  11. ↑ ""Libération" condamné en appel pour injure publique envers le juge Burgaud". Libération (in French). 25 June 2008. Archived from the original on 17 July 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  12. ↑ "Outreau : Tavernier condamné pour outrage au juge Burgaud". Le Parisien (in French). Archived from the original on 17 July 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  13. ↑ "Ferry Owner's Daughter Fighting Extradition". The Chosun Ilbo. English.chosun.com. 29 May 2014. Archived from the original on 2 July 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  14. ↑ "Daughter of Fugitive South Korea Ferry Owner Arrested, Faces Judge". Voice of America. 28 May 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  15. ↑ "Christine Lagarde to stand trial over Tapie corruption case". Financial Times. 22 June 2016. Archived from the original on 26 July 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  16. ↑ "Actualité : La Mutualité Française et le Médiator" (in French). La-mutuelle-optique.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  17. ↑ "Enquête assistants FN: partie civile, le Parlement européen veut "récupérer les fonds"" (in French). publicsenat.fr. 9 March 2017. Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  18. ↑ "France France's UMP 'ordered €10m fake invoices' to hide Sarkozy campaign spending". France 24. Archived from the original on 1 July 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  19. ↑ "Patrick Maisonneuve reconnaît l'existence des fausses factures – Vidéo Dailymotion". Dailymotion.com. 26 May 2014. Archived from the original on 14 October 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  20. ↑ "Crisis for France's Right as Sarkozy party head quits over funding scandal". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2 July 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  21. ↑ "Sarkozy election funding scam – who's who in the Bygmalion affair". Mediapart in English. 7 October 2014. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  22. ↑ "Affaire Bygmalion: nouvelle plainte contre Le Point". L'Express. 6 March 2014. Archived from the original on 18 November 2014. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  23. ↑ "Un des cofondateurs de Bygmalion porte plainte contre 'le Point'". Libération. 30 October 2014. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  24. ↑ "Affaire Bygmalion : "Il n'y a pas deux volets, c'est le seul et même dossier", Me Patrick Maisonneuve". BFM TV. 17 February 2016. Archived from the original on 16 September 2016. Retrieved 15 August 2016.

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